2013 European Championships

Russian Dancers Take Lead as European
Championships Open With Short Dance

by Alexandra Stevenson

Championships Open with Short Dance

As the relatively few spectators made their way
to the purple and yellow sections of plastic seats, the ISU’s
extremely informative video about the history of ice dancing was
shown on a big screen. The priceless footage included the original
holders of this title, the tall Briton, who went on to become Vice
President of the ISU, Lawrence Demmy, and his partner, Jean
Westwood, who has taught in the Vancouver area for many decades.
Other couples were shown briefly doing their compulsories with what,
today, would be regarded as a snail’s pace. That was followed by
footage of later stars of the sport, including the magnificent Jayne
Torvill & Christopher Dean and Meryl Davis & Charlie White.

American Phyllis Howard, who is in Zagreb as
the ISU’s representative, read a speech of welcome in the Opening
Ceremony, in which the Zagreb Snowflakes, a synchronized team,
performed. Croatia’s most famous skater, who lit the flame to open
the Sarajevo Olympics in 1984, Doctor Sanda Dubravcic Simunjak, also
spoke.

(23 January 2013)

1.SD 69.42 (34.44+34.98) With the reigning
two-time champions, Nathalie Pechalat & Fabian
Bourzat from France, sidelined due to his torn abductor muscle
in his right leg, the three-time Russian national ice dance title
holders, Ekaterina Bobrova, 22, & Dmitri Soloviev, 23,
who have been runners-up for this European title for the past two
years, established a small lead going into Friday evening’s Free
Dance, with a mature, very controlled but relaxed demonstration of
the Yankee Polka, which contains two of the five required elements.

Their Short Dance was set to “Put in a Good
Word in for the Poor Hussar” and also contained a pleasant Waltz,
depicting a romance set to music from “The Crew”, a movie about a
plane crash made by a famous Russian director. “We have our own
interpretation of the music,” Bobrova explained. “At the end, we are
saying, ‘Goodbye’ but no one’s dead.”

For their twizzles, which they presented as the
third of the five required elements, they were awarded only Level 3.
All of the other top nine couples, of the 25 duos from 20 countries,
who completed this section, earned the maximum Level 4.

Bobrova & Soloviev were not pleased about that
situation. She admitted, “I wobbled somewhat on the twizzle, but I
did them and the coaches said it shouldn’t affect the level. But, as
you can see, you are punished for the tiniest things.”

Soloviev added, “It was one of our best
performances but not the very best. We are not happy about the Level
3 for the twizzles. But, we are very pleased we got Level 4 for both
Yankee Polka sequences for the first time this season. We worked
really hard on the Polka.

“Twizzles are actually a very easy element for
us. We usually manage 100 out of 100 attempts in practice. But, in
competition, you start to think about them. Maybe, if we didn’t
think about them, they would be fine.”

Bobrova & Soloviev also received Level 3 for
their Non-Touching Midline Steps but no other couple in the
competition was awarded more than Level 3 for this element.

Competitors acknowledge the Yankee Polka has
probably the most effect on results because each half of this
formerly called compulsory dance is classed as a separate Required
Element. The steps were created in the 1970 season by then U.S.
champions, Judy Schomeyer and James Sladky. Part of its difficulty
is due to the unique half-beat steps, which are very fast, causing
great centrifugal force which can be disastrous.

Bobrova wore a relatively plain, wispy, light
pink, knee-length dress with shoulder “puffs”. Soloviev was in a
military dress outfit with a blue top with gold epaulets and cream
trousers, setting the routine up as a period piece.

The top ten ranked ISU couples drew to perform
in the last two of six warm-up groups. The lower ranked competitors
drew for a spot in the four groups of four couples which perform
earlier.

Asked about the toe steps in the Finnstep for
next season, Soloviev said, “This season isn’t over yet. It is too
early to think about next season. We still need to think about the
difficult turns and Choctaw in the Polka now.”

2. SD 68.98 (34.29+34.69) Elena Ilinyhk,
18,& Nikita Katsalapov, 21, who won bronze in this
event in 2012, skated immediately before Bobrova & Soloviev, fourth
in the second to last group of five couples. They now lie less than
half a point behind this very experienced couple. Watching Ilinyhk &
Katsalapov, twice Olympic champion, Evgeny Plato praised their
twizzles as “absolutely fearless”. Two judges agreed, awarding
them the maximum Grade of Execution, +3, for this element, while the
other seven judges punched in +2.

Grinning, Katsalapov said, “I love twizzles.
They are my favorite element. We have them first in both our
programs. If they are good, then the rest of the skate will be easy
and clean. There are some other small things I would like to
perfect. Perhaps they were noticeable to the audience, perhaps not.
It is very warm on the ice which makes it hard to skate but the ice
is very good.”

They were dressed in outfits which were copied
from those worn by a certain area’s folk dancers. Her hair was in
pig tails and she wore a colorful shiny dress and a cloth tiara on
her forehead. He was in a blue jacket with tails and gold trim and
baggy maroon trousers.

Ilinyk & Katsalapov are the 2010 World Junior
Champions. They were fourth in their debut in the European
Championship in 2011. They skated together when they were very young
but split up in 2005.

3. SD 66.53 (32.86+33.67) Anna Cappellini,
25,& Luca Lanotte, 27, skated 25th, with
only their teammates to come, and gave a lively performance to music
from “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers”, “Barn Dance” and “Bless Your
Beautiful Hide” and a Waltz to “Wonderful, Wonderful Day”.

She was in a cream knee length satin dress with
over net underskirts, and a maroon bolero and matching belt. He was
in a maroon waistcoat with cream shirt and cream trousers.

She said, “I am happy with how we skated today.
We had fun. The crowd was cheering and that made the time go very
quickly. We got a Season’s best (score) and we are very happy with
that.

“The twizzles are difficult. You have to train
100 times because the balance is so delicate and, if you are
nervous, you can get a bit disconnected from yourself.”

There was noticeable booing from the audience,
when it was announced that Cappellini & Lanotte were only third,
2.89 points behind the leaders, despite the Italians receiving two
+3 for their twizzles (along with four +2s and three +1s.) Their two
+3s and Ilinykh & Katsalapov’s two +3s, plus the one for Riazanova,
were the only maximum GoEs awarded.

In the Grand Prix Final in December, in Sochi,
their own country, Cappellini & Lanotte had beaten both these
Russian couples, pulling up over Bobrova & Soloviev after the Short
Program. Cappellini pointed out, “Last year, in Sheffield, (where
they finished fourth overall) our mistake in the Short Dance was
very costly for our overall placement so we wanted to make sure that
didn’t happen here.”

4. 64.52 (33.43+31.09) Ekaterina Riazonova,
21, & Ilia Tkachenko, 26, Russia, who train both in Moscow
with Alexei Gorshkov, and in Novi, Michigan, with Igor Shpilband,
have been third in their past two nationals. They finished sixth and
fifth in the past two European championships. Here in Zagreb, they
performed to music from “My Fair Lady”, earning one +3 GoE (out of a
possible nine) for their twizzles.

He explained, “Since Nationals (held in Sochi
at the end of December), we’ve been working hard on the Polka
pattern, to make it the best we can, so we are very pleased with
getting the two Level 4s for that. We have great memories of Zagreb
(where they won the Golden Skate held here last year).

5. 60.93 (31.64+29.29) Until 2010, Julia
Zlobina, 23, Alexei Sitnikov, 26, skated for Russia and
rose as far as competing in two Senior Grand Prix events in 2007.
But, because there is so much talent in that country, they decided
to try out for Azerbaijan. Last year, in their first season of
representing the new country, they were only tenth in the European
and 17th in the World championships.

But their performance in Zagreb was far
superior. Their Short Dance, set to “Valse Violente” by Caravan
Palace, and the amusing “Dolly Song” by Holly Dolly, was
well-performed and they edged ahead of the Britons by 0.34 of a
point. It will be interesting to see what happens in the Free. He
explained, “We chose our music because we wanted to be different.”

6. 60.59 (32.01+28.58) First up after the
second ice resurfacing were Penny Coomes & Nick Buckland,
who are both 23. They are the twice British champions, who train in
the United States with Evgeny Platov. They achieved their Season’s
best but being beaten by the Azerbaijan was unexpected. In last
year’s European championship, which was in Sheffield in their home
country, they placed fourth in this section and sixth overall.

In Zagreb, they earned Level 4 for their
opening twizzles despite Coomes doing an extra turn. Their coach
Evgeny Platov explained, “Doing an extra twizzles is not the mistake
that doing one less would be.” They also earned Level 4 for the
first part of the Yankee Polka and Level 3 for the second part.

Coomes explained, “I had an injury earlier this
season dislocating my so it was a bit of a rush to get ready for the
Grand Prix. We don’t concentrate on the scores and placings so much.
We try to do clean elements because the technical score is so
important.

Though the skaters arrived via London with
their luggage, Platov, who travelled via Paris, had to operate
without clothing because his bags did not arrive with him.

Withdrawn due to his illness, were Alison Reed, 18, the younger sister of the American born siblings
who compete in this discipline for Japan, and her partner, with whom
she teamed up last year,
Vasili Rogov, 21. They represent Israel. The twosome train in
Hackensack, NJ, with Galit Chait Moracci and Briton, John Kerr.

18. 44.94 (23.72+21.22) Reed’s former partner,
Otar Japaridze, 25, with
whom she competed in the 2010 Olympics placing 22nd, is
now skating with a Russian,
Angelina Telegina, 20, and representing Georgia, although they
train in the United States with Evgeny Platov. They survived the cut
after the Short Dance (only the top 20 couples are permitted into Thursday’s Free
Dance). They gave a fun, upbeat performance dressed in traditional
Alpine Polka outfits and Polka music sung in German for the entire
performance.